Swift Solo

The last thing we need on this forum is for it to degenerate into a pissing contest. As can be seen from from my user name it is obvious that I am a supporter of the Swift Solo. That does not mean that by definition I despise the MPS or any other dinghy for that matter. By all means lets have differing points of view but the moment the discussion starts to get to the level of abuse any intelligent discussion becomes impossible. 

In regard to some of the points made here - this is my take.

The latest I14s are rocketships - faster than the 49ers where I sail although we don't have a regular top class 49er sailor participating. Thanks to the T foil rudder they are also safer.

The Swift Solo won't be as fast as the new canoes. I sailed against the Australian canoe recently at Lake Cootharaba. It was FAST!! I am building a Swift Solo in my garage now and Bram has opted for a reasonable amount of stability in the hull shape. Sure he could have made it faster - you slice 6 inches of waterline width of the boat. The point is that this is a fast singlehanded skiff that most people with some effort can master. It actually stands upright by itself in the water! In my opinion that provides a really good basis for strong growth in the future as the basic hull is fast without being unsailable for 99% of all sailors and the rig can evolve with the rapid changes that are happening and also be tuned to different sizes and venues.

Singlehanded skiff sailing is a relatively new and exiting addition to our sport. I think the more classes there are the better. I think the MPS looks like a great boat but there are none in Oz and on balance I preferred the idea of builing something myself with more control over the finished product. Like Rick I relish the idea of sailing against the opposition when my Swift is finished. 

I was pleased to read and informed by this thread and I hope trapper will slink back to Sailing Anarchy where insults are de rigueur.

I have been thinking of, I think it was Michael France's post, about the Box Rule. Where I sail, the CAT F18 rule has sold quite a few boats and is the best thing to happen to their fleets, since god knows when. I cant find Michael's exact post in this thread but I think I might end up with a swift, 9 lb lighter with a set of stubby racks that match the Musto width. This could be good?  In any case, the classes are what they are for good reasons and we have a perfectly good system in the PY if there are enough boats regularly racing with each other.

Of course PY will not keep the boats together on the course if the classes have a big difference in speed but it does show you how your personal effort racks up against others, and I for one am concerned about sailing well, improving. If I win great, but Im much more disappointed and then determined if I just don’t sail well. Its a pyrrhic victory to win in a faster yet unmatched boat which is why I like the idea of a good wind adjusted PY system. Cats where I am based use it to great effect and have a lot of fun. I have sailed my 49er against the local cats and the timing differences are in the seconds most races around the pins, providing me a good benchmark for our days effort.

At the moment I'm not convinced the s-skiffs have a really good PY ratio, Rick points out, rightly, that we have not had enough sailing together (and I think that’s a shame). It would be of great importance, I think, to carefully analyze the latest MPS/700 timing data from the regattas Rick mentions to get better confidence in the current PY or adjust it so that the 700s at local club events are on an equal footing. Has that data been put through sailwave for an estimated PY. Do people in the two fleets feel that the PY's are fine???

Since our MPS friends will be at the April SS  training session in Florida maybe we could work on the US SS PY number there. I think the US numbers are just a mathematical translation from the UK numbers, yes?

There is a frustration obviously with expert opinion and I think we need to get out there and sail more together so that the experts can be right more often than not and we can all stay on the same page, leave the arguing behind, and get busy making our boats sail faster and improving our own personal performances and keep our laser on the reason we sail high performance skiffs  - to have more fun.

BTW Lets make sure we report the whole regatta results not just the top 10 so I will get my boats name out there at least once in a while :-)

SH

"Sounds like a great event - I assume you are going to do this in SF bay; that would leave no shortage of classic pictures ..."

Rick,

We will likely have to follow the money for venue along with what will attract big names.  The six boats are in Seattle and the likelyhood of raising money for the event is most likely there as well.  I suspect that most top sailors have a "reputation" to protect and will want their first time out in these boats to be something other than crash and burn events where photos of them burning make the publications.  Also, chances are in Seattle (during the early summer) that over two or three days you will get two or three different wind conditions.  We will likely import some sailors from the SF Bay for the event since it is the other hot spot (besides Seattle) for skiff sailing in the US.

Thanks again Rick

Bram  

The main problem with that theory is that a lot of sailors in the UK have seen the MPS perform to the standards Rick has shown in the picture. They are lively boats and do perform well in heavier conditions. The boats seem really well balanced and I think that's why people have been questioning the design of the swift solo as its a narrower boat with more sail area. I, like most other people, won't judge a serious boat before I have seen it sail, or sailed it myself and that's why I rate the MPS highly. I'll wait to see the Swift Solo sail before I start rating her.